Across the Nation

Posted: November 25, 2011 - 1:17am

AcrossTheNation

TUCSON, Ariz.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords helped serve a Thanksgiving meal to service members and retirees at a military base in her hometown.

Giffords arrived in the dining hall at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson at midday Thursday wearing a ball cap and an apron with her nickname of “Gabby” sewn on the front. She was accompanied by her retired astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, who also donned an apron.

Giffords used only her left hand as she served, a sign that physical damage remains from the injuries she suffered when she was shot in January.

PHOENIX

A small airplane slammed into a sheer cliff in the mile-high mountains east of Phoenix and exploded, killing the six people onboard, including the pilot and his three young children who were to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with him, authorities said.

The body of one child was recovered and dozens of sheriff’s search and rescue personnel worked Thursday to recover the remains of the other victims, said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

A search and rescue team was in the rugged Superstition Mountains searching for three missing teenagers Wednesday evening and saw the explosion as the twin-engine plane hit the cliff, Babeu said. The searchers found the teens, then went up the mountain to try to reach the crash site.

PHILADELPHIA

A court in Egypt has ordered the release of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo, a lawyer in Philadelphia confirmed Thursday.

Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter, who attend the American University in Cairo, were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, a 19-year-old student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said his client remained in custody at a police station as of Thursday afternoon Eastern time.

CONCORD, N.H.

Whether they like it or not, Republican presidential candidates are joining New Hampshire’s intensifying gay marriage debate.

State lawmakers plan in the coming weeks to take up a measure to repeal the law allowing same-sex couples to wed and a vote is expected at some point in January — the same month as New Hampshire holds the nation’s first Republican presidential primary contest.

Already, candidates have been put on the spot over the divisive hot-button social issue when most, if not all, would rather be talking about the economy, voters’ No. 1 concern.

The impending focus on gay marriage carries risk for several White House contenders — including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former businessman Herman Cain — whose inconsistencies on the topic are well documented.

BRIEFLY ...

• PRAGUE, Okla. — A small earthquake hit central Oklahoma just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 3.7-magnitude quake about 3:11 p.m. Thursday near Prague. The epicenter of the quake was 17 miles northeast of Shawnee and 44 miles east of Oklahoma City.

• EVERETT, Wash. — A grocery store security guard was fired after he told the father of a 4-year-old girl she would face criminal charges for eating from a dried fruit package, a TV station reported. The child’s mother, Alissa Jones, said the father wasn’t looking when the girl grabbed the package, ate a few pieces of fruit then returned it to a shelf at a Safeway store in Everett, Wash.

• PHOENIX — Arizona is taking on immigration once again, with state lawmakers collecting donations from the public to put fencing along every inch of the state’s porous Mexican border in a first-of-its-kind effort.